I was hoping for all of this to pipe down by the morning. I was getting quite tired of the politics everywhere, but it’s still in everybody’s face at the moment. No surprises though – especially with that result.

I’ll try keep this simple to avoid confusion, and neutral. Politics isn’t all that interesting, but it’s still important for you to understand how the country runs. It does affect us all at the end of the day.

As you are well aware, Theresa May called a snap election in order to increase the Conservative majority. However, it’s not gone to plan at all, just as the exit polls predicted. What was supposed to bring a bit more stability to our country has just made a bigger mess. In order for the Tories to win outright they must hit 326 seats in the House of Commons out of the 650. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t hit this number. They weren’t far off with 318 seats (10:58AM, 649/650 declared), but that’s not going to do it as they can’t exceed the needed amount.

Results with one chair to be declared, not that it makes a difference now. (Image: Google)

Now What?

It’s quite rare for the UK to head for a hung parliament due to our usual first-past-the-post electoral system. The same happened back in ’74 as well as more recently in 2010. A hung parliament means that whoever has the most seats is given the opportunity to form a new government, which can be done in one of two ways: a coalition with other parties or an informal arrangement known as “confidence and supply”.

A coalition with other parties would mean the coalition partners share ministerial jobs and push through a shared agenda. May has made it clear she isn’t resigning, so she may have to try and convince the DUP (for example) to work with her, pushing her seats up to the amount needed to obtain majority in the House of Commons. May’s other option is the “confidence and supply” arrangement. This would lead to the smaller parties agreeing to support the main legislation, such as a budget and Queen’s speech put forward by the largest party but do formally take part in government.

There is another possibility, however. If the Tories fail to form an alliance, then Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn could maybe strike a deal with the SNP, Lib Dems, DUP and the Greens. Although, that’s not a very likely scenario.

When will we know?

Considering attempts to form an alliance are already going on, it could be a matter of days. MPs are returning to parliament on Monday but nothing can be confirmed before a vote of confidence is held in that government. This won’t happen before the 19th of June.

We’ll just have to see what happens. Let us know your thoughts on this year’s election in the comments below… and try not to squabble.